SEATTLE ? The massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, and the ongoing war crimes prosecutions of Washington state soldiers helped inspire a terror plot in which two men planned to attack a military recruiting station in Seattle with grenades and machine guns, according to a federal complaint filed Thursday.
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, of Seattle, and Walli Mujahidh, also known as Frederick Domingue Jr., of Los Angeles, were arrested Wednesday night.
The FBI ensnared them in a terror sting after they arrived at a warehouse garage to pick up machine guns to use in the attack, authorities said. The weapons had been rendered inoperable by federal agents and posed no risk to the public.
The complaint, written by FBI Special Agent Albert C. Kelly III and filed in U.S. District Court, paints Abdul-Latif as the leader of the effort. In conversations with an FBI informant, he spoke admiringly of the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood when a lone gunman killed 13 people, and of the war crimes charges against five Washington state soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians for sport last year.
"Abdul-Latif said that he was not comfortable with letting the legal system deal with these matters," Kelly wrote.
The two suspects appeared in federal court Thursday in tan prison garb and listened as prosecutor recited the charges against them. Detention hearings were set for next Wednesday. Their court-appointed defense lawyers declined to comment.
The suspects could face life in prison if convicted.
Authorities learned of the plot early this month when a third person recruited to participate alerted the Seattle Police Department, the complaint said. Investigators immediately began monitoring the men, and the confidential informant, who has known Abdul-Latif for years and has a criminal record of his own, continued to string them along by promising to obtain weapons.
The recruiting station, the Military Entrance Processing Station on East Marginal Way in Seattle, is adjacent to a daycare inside a building called Federal Center South. Recruits for all military branches are screened and processed there.
The Homeland Security Department said in a May 31 assessment with other organizations that it did not think it likely there would be coordinated terrorist attacks against military recruiting and National Guard facilities.
The agencies agreed, however, that lone offenders or groups would continue to try to launch attacks against these facilities.
In audio and video recordings, the suspects in the Seattle case discussed the plot at length, discussing how to time their attack at military recruits, such as by tossing grenades in the cafeteria, the complaint said.
"The key thing to remember here is, is we are not targeting anybody innocent ? that means old people, women out of uniform, any children," Abdul-Latif is quoted as saying. "Just people who wear the green for the kaffir Army, that's who we're going after."
The agent wrote that they also fantasized about the headlines the attack would generate ? "Three Muslim Males Walk Into MEPS Building, Seattle, Washington, And Gun Down Everybody" ? and speculated that if they got control of the building, television news crews would arrive to cover them.
Mujahidh, 32, voluntarily spoke with investigators after the arrests and confessed, the complaint said.
"Mujahidh admitted that he was planning on carrying out an attack at the MEPS for the purpose of killing United States military personnel in order to prevent them from going to Islamic lands and killing Muslims," the complaint said.
Abdul-Latif, 33, and Mujahidh, 32, are charged by complaint with conspiracy to murder officers and employees of the United States, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, and possession of firearms in furtherance of crimes of violence. Abdul-Latif is also charged with two counts of illegal possession of firearms.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle said the defendants initially planned to attack Joint Base Lewis-McChord but later changed targets. The defendants intended to carry out their attack with both grenades and machine guns, the government said.
"The complaint alleges these men intended to carry out a deadly attack against our military where they should be most safe, here at home," Seattle U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said in a statement. "This is a sobering reminder of our need to be vigilant."
Abdul-Latif has previous felony convictions for first-degree robbery of a Bremerton, Wash., convenience store and for custodial assault, as well as misdemeanor convictions for obstructing a law enforcement officer, assault and theft.
When he was prosecuted on the robbery charge in Kitsap County in 2002, he was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation, and despite some "issues" was found competent to participate in his defense, FBI Special Agent Albert C. Kelly III wrote in the complaint.
According to a copy of the evaluation, Abdul-Latif reported that he was originally from San Diego, where his father was serving time in prison, and that his mother lived in Bremerton but he had not seen her in a long time. He said he suffered from depression and abandonment issues, that he had "huffed" gasoline and smoked marijuana to get high, and that he tried to kill himself in 2001 by deliberately overdosing on seizure medication.
Abdul-Latif was sentenced to 31 months in prison on that charge. He served from January 2002 until July 2004 for a conviction of first-degree robbery in Kitsap County and a custodial assault in Walla Walla County, and committed two serious infractions while in custody ? assault in 2002 and fighting in 2004, said state Corrections Department spokesman Chad Lewis.
"There is nothing in Davis' records that indicates that he converted to Islam while he was in prison," Lewis said in an email.
Mujahidh does not appear to have a criminal record, the complaint said. It wasn't immediately clear how Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh became acquainted.
In a bankruptcy filing from a month ago, Abdul-Latif reported assets of about $3,000 and liabilities of about $6,000. He reported that about $2,000 in monthly income from a janitorial business was entirely nullified by the expenses of operating Fresh and Clean Janitorial. His wife, identified as Binta Moussa, was earning about $1,200 a month, according to court documents but that wasn't enough to cover their costs of living.
Steve Dashiak, a bankruptcy attorney representing Abdul-Latif, told The Associated Press he was stunned by the developments, and that his client seemed like a regular man.
"I sensed no ill will from him whatsoever," Dashiak said. "He seemed like a guy just trying to make it, having a rough time because business wasn't going very well. To say that I didn't see this coming would be an understatement."
A sign on the door of Abdul-Latif's apartment read in part: "In the Name of Allah we enter, in the name of Allah we leave, and upon our lord we depend."
Potential recruits came and left as normal at the military processing center Thursday. Children and adults were having a barbecue behind a fence at the same building.
Army Corps of Engineers Col. Anthony Wright, commander of the Seattle district and senior official for the building, said he was kept informed about the threat and made some changes in security as a precaution.
"I've spent about three years in Iraq. It's a little different to feel it here in Seattle, but it's part of the world we live in," he said.
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Gene Johnson can be reached at http://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle.
Counterterrorism reporter Eileen Sullivan contributed to this story from Washington.
Mike Baker contributed from Olympia, Wash., and can be reached at http://twitter.com/MikeBakerAP.
Manuel Valdes contributed from Seattle and can be reached at http://twitter.com/manevaldes.
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